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50 States of Song 2018
' 50 States of Song 2018' was the third edition of the 50 States of Song music contest, taking place between late April and early August 2018. The contest was produced and directed by gplehner and features song entries from all 50 states and one US territory (Guam). Rules The rules for 50 States of Song 2018 were loosely based around the Eurovision Song Contest, with some minor differences: *The song must be under 3 minutes and 30 seconds. *The song must be an original composition. No covers! *The artist or band must live in or be from the U.S. state they represent. *The artist or band must not have had a Top 40 hit on several of the Billboard charts at any time prior to the contest. This guarantees up-and-coming artists only. *The artist must be 14 years or older as of the year of their song's release. *Artists who placed in the Top 10 of the previous edition are not allowed to re-enter for one year. *The song should be accompanied by a music video. *In this contest's edition, songs must have been publicly released between January and December 2017. Venue The song contest was held entirely online, but a "host" city is chosen to coincide with the U.S. state of the winning entry from the previous contest. In this case, California was to be host. Because Los Angeles was host of the inaugural contest (2016), a different city was chosen - and San Diego was decided upon because of the contest producer's preconditioned familiarity with the city. The producer's goal is to attend the host city and film on location for the contest. The San Diego Convention Center was the theoretical "host location," and filming took place the week before Comic Con 2018 brought 40,000+ people to the center. Unfortunately, no advertising campaign for the contest took place. The Final Results video featured a four-minute introduction with clips of the city and surrounding area, borrowed from various online sources, and additional filming taking place by the contest producer in San Diego. Prequalifying Rounds For the first time in 50 States of Song history, the contest held four U.S. state selection rounds, in which five songs would compete for the right to represent their state. This followed an open submission period from December 2017 through February 2018 in which anyone could submit a suggestion for the contest. Across all fifty states and potential US territories, over 100 songs were submitted or suggested. The states of Oregon, Tennessee, New York, and Colorado were selected as "test" state selections, given the high number of songs submitted for those states, and general interest. Each jury voter ranked the five songs in the selection. Regrettably, some state selection voting forms asked the voter to rank from "1" (most favorite) to "5" (least favorite), while other forms flipped this around to "5" (most favorite) and "1" (least favorite), similar to the Semifinal/Final Round Public voting format. Given the high potential that this would confuse a voter who participates in multiple state selections into accidentally flipping their votes, a different voting strategy will be used for future selections. Semifinals To qualify for the Final Round, 50 entries were randomly drawn into two groups of 25, and then ordered randomly. This is consistent with the 2017 edition. The winning state's song (California) automatically qualified to the Final Round. Due to "fan voting" in 2016 which resulted in lopsided voting patterns, and a decrease in the number of completed (full) votes submitted in 2017, the system was once again redesigned with a "Jury" and "Public" voting form. The Jury voting form was structured in 'Eurovision' style, on a 1 to 12 scale, with 12 points given to the juror's favorite song, and progressing down 10-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 points for their ten favorite songs out of 25. Jurors were allowed to vote for either semifinal, but were limited to one vote. The Public voting form broke each semifinal into five groups of five songs, and the listener had to rank each group of five songs from most favorite (5) to least favorite (1). The five songs that received a "5" would get 5 points, songs with a "4" received 3 points, and songs with a "3" received 1 point. The points would then be adjusted to account for 50% of the overall points. In 2018, an individual jury voter (there were 7 in Semifinal 1, and 6 in Semifinal 2) carried more weight than an individual public vote (16 and 14 respectively.) Semifinal Results Semifinal entries were posted online for the first time in May 2018. Voting in the semifinals was held from May 29 - June 16 at fiftystatesofsong.com, with cross-promotion on Twitter, Facebook, and the Song Contest / PopJustice forum pages. Below are the results of the two semifinals. Users could vote one time each for each group of songs; they did not have to vote for both semifinals. Therefore, Semifinal 1 had more points overall than others. Points were allotted as follows: the voter's favorite song 10 points, 2nd favorite = 9, 3rd favorite = 8, etc. all the way down to their tenth-favorite, which would score 1 points, and the remaining 15 songs received 0 points from that ballot. Advancement to the Final Round was determined by the Top 12 songs that received the most points in their semifinal. Semifinal 1 Semifinal 2 Final Round The 2018 Final Round featured 12 qualifying songs from each semifinal, as well as the host state's entry, for a grand total of 25 songs. The voting period was held between June 25 and July 25, 2018. Voters had to analyze the 25 songs, which were ordered randomly, and submit their ballot via a 10-15 minute survey. The voting method was the same as the semifinal voting process (Jury/Public split). A total of 40 ballots (26 public, 14 jury) were received, all of which were valid. Final Results Twenty-five US states participated in the Final Round. The final show, which announced the winner of the contest and featured clips from the host city of San Diego, was released on August 5th, 2018. Tabular Results Below are the reorganized tabular results of the Jury and Public Vote ballots for the Semifinals and Final Round. Public Vote Differences The 675/585 overall public points were weighted down to match the 406/348 overall jury points in each respective semifinal. This meant that a public vote counted for less in the semifinal rounds due to the lower jury count. Songs ranked a "5" by a public voter received 5 points, a "4" rank received 3 points, and a "3" rank received 1 point. Songs were not given points by voters who ranked them a "2" or "1". After the points were given out using this scheme, the weight was applied (rounded up) and the scores added together for a grand total (above). The Final Round Public Vote was not weighted at all; however, a different point scheme was applied. Songs ranked a "5" were given 3 points (instead of 5), and a "4" rank received 2 points (instead of 3). This added up to 780 overall points from 26 public voters (30 per vote) v.s. 812 from the 14 jury members (58 points per vote). Semifinal One Semifinal Two FR coming soon Category:50 States of Song